The Bitterroot flavored by
Many springs ago, a grieving mother went into the wilds to sing a death song for her starving children and her tribe. As she wept bitter tears by the banks of the Little Bitter-root river, the hot May sun saw her and took pity.
The sun called to the woman's spirit and told it of her plight. The spirit came to the woman in the form of a red bird and told her:
"The tears of your sorrow have gone into the soil, and there the roots of a new plant are being formed. The plant will have leaves close to the ground. Its blossom will first have the rose of my wing feathers and then the white of your hair.
"Your people will dig the root of the plant and will eat it. They will find it bitter from vour sorrow, but it will be
a starving mother's tears
good food for them. They will see the flowers and will say, 'Here is the silver of our mother's hair upon the ground and the rose from the win^s of the spirit bird. Our mother's tears have given us food."
And the bitterroot plant, called SPETLEM by the Salish, has been welcomed like a mother every spring since.
The bitterroot is the first wild plant of the mountain area to ripen after the winter. It comes at a time when winter larders are running thin and the game is spread around . i and hard to find. It comes at a time when the Indians of the mountains most need it.
For this reason, and because the Bitterroot Feast presented an opportunity for the people to come t ogether after the 1 (cont. on page 5) BITTERROOT
THE NEWSPAPER OF THE SALISH, PEND d ORIELLES AND KOOTENAI TRIBES OF THE FLATHEAD RESERVATION
15 C
HAR-KOOSTA
Volume 4 - Number 2 NEW MOON OF THE BLOOMING BITTERROOT May 1,1974
Forest Study Team Zeros in on Roads
Ronan: Logging roads constitute the most drastic form of environmental impact on the reservation's forest....That was the consensus of eight forestry experts who participated in an environmental assessment on reservation forestry practices.
The experts, most from the Unviersity of Montana Forestry School, presented their findings to the Tribal Council April 30 at the BIA Forestry Warehouse in Ronan. The examination of forestry practices on the reservation and the presentation was under the direction of Dr. Leo Cummins.
Most of the experts in the study team agreed that logging roads had a far greater impact on the forest environment than any other part of the logging program. Dr. Arthur Roe, a U of M silviculturist (tree growth specialist) noted that there are currently 21,4 0 5 miles of roads on 2 5 2,0 0 0 acres
of land on the reservation.....that means that the Flathead
Reservation forest has almost enough road to circle the world (the world in 24,902 miles in circumference). Dr. Roe said this averages out to about 5.8 miles of road in every section (square mile) which has been logged.
Dr. Roe said that in some logging units, such as the Crippled Horse Creek Unit, roads now occudv over one-auarter of the entire land area. He said the Crippled Horse Creek has a road every 89 feet and there are about 59 miles of roads per section.
Dr. Roe pointed out that excessive road building has several effects on the ability of a forest to produce trees. He said that roads remove the area occupied by the road bed from
the producing forest. He said that in extreme cases such as the Crippled Horse Creek Unit, this can drastically affect the generation of new trees. He said, however, that the openings created by roads encourage heavier growth along the right of way and, in some cases, make up for the loss in growth created by the road.
Dr. Roe also noted that roads and other uses of heavy equipment in the forest reduce the growing area by "compacting" the soil. , ^^„„T^1 , OX
F 6 LOGGING (cont. on page 3)
Louie Nine Pipe Dies at 83 years
Arlee: Louie Nine Pipe, who was perhaps the most widely known Salish Indian in the world, died May 2 in a Missoula hospital. He was 83 years old.
Louie Nine Pipe became a yworld celebrity two years ago when he married a 2 3 year old English girl, Vivian Rica Red Wing. On Oct. 16, 1972, the couple was married in Missoula after a courtship correspondence between Arlee and Gloucester, England, lasting two years. The affair was started when Miss Red Wing saw a photograph of Mr. Nine Pipe on a record album. Photographs and stories about the marriage appeared in news papers throughout the world.
LOUIE NINE PIPE